Sir Alex Ferguson wanted for big interview, as BT scrap with Sky for TV special

Sir Alex Ferguson, nearly a year on since he announced his retirement as Manchester United manager, is being chased by TV networks for a definitive interview or documentary about his career.

United’s struggles this season and the large-scale media tour Ferguson conducted last autumn to promote his bestselling second autobiography have not diluted interest in him.

However, Fergie’s agent, son Jason, has yet to agree to a TV deal in the knowledge that his father, who is paid £2million for his 20 days of ambassador work for United, can also earn that £100,000-a-day rate on the lecture circuit.

Hot property! Sir Alex Ferguson is being chased for a number of huge TV networks for an exclusive interview

Look who's smiling! The former Manchester United boss can earn £100,000-a-day lecturing

Sign of the times: BT Sport have spent an extortionate amount of money on their football coverage

BT Sport, who have been in conversations with Jason, along with BBC, ITV, Sky, CNN and NBC, also have Fergie at the top of their wish list as a superstar pundit when they start Champions League coverage from the 2015-16 season. But there is a realisation that Fergie is highly unlikely to be interested in a regular TV analyst role when he can still earn far more elsewhere.

Arsenal's concern that their undersize ticket allocation for the FA Cup final would result in a touts’ market is already proving correct. Madrid-based pirate secondary online site 1st4footballtickets are offering a huge range of specific Wembley seats at prices from £351.50 to £1,187.50. No tickets have been distributed by the FA. As is the vogue for unofficial sellers, they sell seats they haven’t acquired for a high price, gambling on securing the tickets before the handover date. An FA spokesman said: ‘We’re aware of this website but they operate outside the UK, so ignore our legislation.’

When the Premier League bade farewell to chairman Sir Dave Richards (right) last summer on reaching the compulsory retirement age of 70, little did they think he would soon be back at the table. But Sir Dave is now chairman of the King Power holding company that owns promoted Leicester, entitling him to attend PL meetings next season. Richards is still considering whether to do so.

Manchester City did all they could to pay proper respect on the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Yet there have still been complaints by Liverpool fans to City and the Premier League, as well as a Facebook page being set up, over David Silva dispensing with an armband that kept slipping during City’s match at Liverpool last Sunday.

Roma re-arranging a Serie A fixture
against Parma on a Champions League night is the latest challenge to
UEFA’s ruling that no games can clash with their flagship competition.

The Premier League, who opposed
European Professional Football Leagues’ agreement with UEFA, believe it
is only a matter of time before it unravels, such is the pressure on the
fixture calendar. But criticising UEFA for using solidarity payments to
keep non-Euro competition teams onside is a bit rich, considering the
way the PL use their solidarity funding to bully the Football League.

Fury: Liverpool supporters aren't happy that David Silva dispensed with his black armband on Sunday afternoon

Take that! Roma have rearranged a Serie A fixture on the same night as UEFA's Champions League showcase

Does he not like that?

Former manager Graham Taylor, whose England side failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, will miss out again in Brazil this summer. Taylor will not be included in the BBC Radio 5 Live team as England analyst, having been replaced by Danny Mills.

Mills took over when Taylor missed Euro 2012 because of a chronic knee condition. Mills has 19 England caps, with one of his radio predecessors, Terry Butcher, believing you were only a genuine international after 20 appearances.

Blow! Former England manager Graham Taylor has been overlooked as a pundit by the BBC this summer

Troubled sports marketing agency Kentaro, badly hit when UEFA centralised media rights, have had their parent company put into liquidation for a second time by a Swiss court. A Kentaro spokesman, who blamed rivals trying to destabilise the company, said it was only a local legal matter that will quickly be sorted out. Kentaro used to work for the FA and own 51 per cent of football agency SEM, the controversial consultants at the start of Venky’s Blackburn ownership.